I'd probably recommend the i7 upgrade to most people though, if for no other reason that it avoids feeling like Haswell has caused a performance regression. Of course, it'd be nice to see its impact on battery life first. (hint hint Anand)Reply

Hardware is only one part of the puzzle, so even assuming it was true Macs had inferior laptop hardware (which is a stretch but let's assume), people have various reasons to like MacBooks like OS X and the way they integrate with other Apple hardware and services.

Mac users are generally pretty loyal and it's usually not a minor technical difference like the screen resolution that will make them switch completely the OS and ecosystem they've become used to and like. So yes, to some extent, you can expect Mac users to ignore minor technicalities from competitors if they fail to deliver something they think can match/surpass the whole Mac experience in the big picture.

You completely missing the point of the MacBooks' popularity (or pretending to) does not equal Anand trying to manipulate AAPL or whatever you're trying to claim to justify your hate of seeing anything Apple-related getting some attention. If you don't have anything relevant to add, please just leave.Reply

What I'm pissed about is that apple HAS stopped innovating, anandtech and the media is trying to ignore it, still sipping on the leftovers of jobs koolaid...there is only one reason, and it's financial.

I mean seriously, we need a "review" to tell us not to buy last years models???????

Where is the Samsung, or asus version of this guide? It is direct marketing for apple. Direct. Here an article about when and what you should buy. By anandtech. End of story.

The "new" air is a sidegrade at best, it's still a nice laptop...in 2011, wheres the retina? Omg. 16gb of ram even... That would cost NOTHING to do from an engineering perspective.

Only thing good cooking at apple right now is mavericks and the Mac Pro, but even mavericks is just finally catching up to windows in a lot of ways. iPhone 5s gonna be exact same. They are gonna release cheap plastic version now too. Yawn.

Go watch the mavericks keynote everyone freaks out with applause that a full screen app doesn't kill the second screen now...I had that in win2k lol.

I love OSX, it's better than windows in many ways but god... Try unplugging a disk without ejecting it first...woops i forgot when I was I a hurry. *%^# my disk is corrupted now!

Windows resolved that problem almost a decade ago.. It's the fundamentals OSX is missing.

Networking is slower, and slightly less dependable.

Cut and paste is a PITA, screenshot...PITA..wanna "snap" windows and resize...need an app for that. Wanna hover and preview windows in the task bar?? Need an app for that. Wanna actually completely close an app in one click...need an app for that. Wanna maximize a window completely one click...need an app for that.

1. I unplug disks without ejecting first ALL THE TIME, often accidentally (shitty external drive) and it has never resulted in data corruption.

2. Cut and Paste is cmd+alt+v, one key more than cmd+v, hardly a PITA and in some ways even clever (you can decide whether to cut or copy at the time of insertion)

3. There is no task bar and for preview OSX has Exposé. Different from Windows 7, but neither better nor worse.

4. Not closing an app with the last window is decidedly Mac. I've made my peace with it and some apps (System Preferences for example) don't even respect it. It's been like this for 30 years, so why bitch about it now?!

5. Maximizing windows also works their way. You seem to want OSX to work just like Windows. Why not use Windows then? Seems all your problems would be fixed.Reply

Not closing an app with the last window is for people on HDD, keeps the app running in ram. So, for older hardware, Microsoft office doesn't take 30 seconds to open everytime you close the last window. If you wanted to close it, CMD+Q closes it all. There's also a short key for maximizing windows. I also believe finder or disk utility has an option on how to handle mountable drives for pulling drives without first ejecting. Use Alfred to quick eject, it's a much more efficient platform to run your comp via keyboardReply

Now go try and find me an "app" to do that one, oh wait...there are apps that emulate windows snap capability, bit as for multiple wondows from multiple programs? haha good luck.

Theres only one and its clunky as hell and costs 8 bucks.

Just to organize your desktop. I mean seriously im no MS or apple fanboy, im a developer, to get things done i need to run both OS's .....mac is terrible on the basics, and fundamentals like networking and file system.... but great in the "hey thats kinda cool" department.Reply

I'm just going to respond to one of your assertions (as some of your others don't seem to even understand how OS X sometimes works architecturally to make the complaint irrelevant) and that's about Apple's innovation. Here's the thing. You don't know if they are innovating before they actually release a product because they don't communicate about product development. As for competitiveness, when you are focused on specs then you're inevitably going to be disappointed. Personally, I find an 8GB Macbook Air to be much "faster" than a 16GB Windows laptop. I guess your mileage may vary.Reply

But apple knew people like you would justify it as a good move anyways and make the purchase lol.

Its not about speed, when developing, I am forced to run several VM's for testing simultaneously in parallels. 8gb isnt enough, without having to start and stop constantly, or run your machine at a crawl. Thats why i was forced to buy a mac mini. I need to test and develop in both OSX and Windows, otherwise I wouldn't even run apple hardware, its not worth the premium.

Yeh I know you can Hack OSX into a VM as well, but Im busy enough as it is and dont have time to eff around with making sure my pirated software validates in an "illegal" VM

16gb of ram cost a 100 bucks retail.

stop defending a lost cause, this is about anandtech marketing for apple, and ignoring the fact they are releasing the same thing as they did last year...just a bit slower...which is why it went down in price lol.Reply

I realize this is several months old... But I'll never understand some people. News flash pal... No one is forcing you to use a Mac. Ok, so you're a "developer" - would it really kill you to give up the Mac market share? Probably not. Severaly VMs - why would you even be trying that on a MBA? Oh wait... You're obviously too cheap to buy a more capable machine...

You go on and on and on and on about things you don't like on the Mac.... No offense, but who cares what you think? Please, go and be fruitful with your Windows machine and when you do - stay off of Mac-centric articles or at the least - refrain from commenting.

You obviously don't get it... Nor will you even get, that you don't get it. I've been using Macs for 25 years and there's a reason I keep using them. I really couldn't care less if I could eek out a couple GHz here, nor a few pixels there with another machine - I don't like Windows, plain and simple, nor do I care for what I consider to be largely inferior hardware. I like what I like and I'll gladly pay for it - it shouldn't concern you in the least, so why would you have a problem with that?

Price premium? Buy refurbished... For myself (and the vast majority of users) there's no need to stay on the bleeding edge. I upgrade about every five years or so... My current machine is a 15" MBP with a quad-core i7, 6GB of ram, and a hi-res antiglare display (the last non-retina model) and I paid significantly less by simply waiting a while after it came out. It's by far, the nicest, most powerful machine I've ever owned and it has more than enough horsepower for many more years to come. Heck... It may very well be the last "traditional" computer I'll ever buy.

Bottom line... Save yourself (and everyone else) a lot of frustration. It's pretty unhealthy to get this riled up by a computer company. Bottom line... If you don't like it, go somewhere else. That's the beauty of a free market - everyone gets to buy what they want.Reply

I think you need to reread the first paragraph, or at least between the lines. This article was only to recommend hardware within the realm of apple. As an apple user, I thought this was fantastic, and helped shape my buying conundrum.Reply

WoW...Amazing....where do folks like you (dsumanik) come from? Why would you A, read the article and B, take the time to respond? You can't be serious???? Un Real---To blame an excellent run down on Apple Hardware for Apple buyers (and the general public possibly considering a first Apple purchase) on his stock options? Wow....sinking to a new low. Why not find a place that interests you? Samsung or Google (BTW---Lots and LOTS of Google/Sammy reviews and plenty of information on Anand.com if you're interested in those)....to infer he's losing money or attempting to manipulate the stock market somehow with a buyer's guide for current Mac Gear...what a LAME response. Folks like you should quit feeding that spider, move out of your mother's basement, grab a whiff of fresh air and maybe even take a shower.JReply

I read this in an article called "Best Mac Laptops - June 2013". As such all the WinTel Fanboi-ism asking why they aren't mentioning Windows seems... misplaced at best and outright trollish if typical of many comments sections.Reply

Well since Anand suggested that the 13" rMBP will be using a 28W ULT part, doesn't that automatically exclude Iris Pro from consideration? If I recall from the original article he covered regarding Iris and Iris Pro, 28W parts are going to be Iris only (without the embedded dram).

This is the big reason I don't understand the market for Iris Pro. It's still not power efficient enough to be included in ultra-portable/thin-and-light laptops. Therefore, it'll only work in laptops which have a higher thermal envelope (NOT a 13" rMBP; maybe the 15" rMBP). When you get into this category, you're competing with systems which typically have much better discrete solutions anyway. I can't imagine buyers of these types of system would be as concerned about the battery life improvements afforded by Haswell and would much rather have as much raw horsepower stuffed under the hood as possible.

Iris Pro has a 47W TDP and has a GPU comparable to an nVidia GT 640M. The 640M has at least a 20W TDP; and can only be combined with Haswell mobile quad core CPUs (the dual cores don't have the PCIe lanes needed). The lowest power quad is 37W, making the 640M solution at least 10W hotter; assuming the lowest power quad has a price premium attached most OEMs (Apple being a plausible exception) will probably go for one of the 47W variants resulting in a 20W penalty for discrete graphics. Reply

at the expense of battery life... I wish they didnt go 100% upgrade on battery life. I too would have liked a smaller bezel and different display design. But... If they did that, then ur looking at rMBP 13"... A better display on MBA's would only confuse the rMBP 13"'s target segmentReply

This is very interesting topic currently given that apple is not updating its entire line of macbooks at one event .. Also Haswell has shaken up things in the mobile world.

This chart is basically perfect for American customers but if there are any Indian customers like me reading this please consider this if possible

First of all the prices in India are usually a concern when it comes to apple products and also it takes about 50 days after apple officially launch a product to hit Indian markets. But this might be the time for cheapest macbooks in India for the next 2 months. The 13 inch retina is currently priced at 99900 Rs which is more than 1500$ converted to rupees at todays exchange rate .But Indian apple stores are offering a 12000Rs discount on it until Sept 22nd for students. This discount is normally 6% of the price but you can easly understand that they are doing this to boost sales before the refresh . at 89900Rs the retina macbook pro 13 inch is a steal for Indian customers.

Let me explain this how according to my understanding. As far as i have observed the prices of Macbooks in the last few years here is something interesting : The price of a 1199$ 13 inchmacbook pro was 69900 when dollar was around 50-52 Rs .. When dollar climbed above 56-57 the price was changed to 82900 Rs . The current dollar price is around 59 . But dont expect apple to change prices just yet..

The student discount are valid till 22nd Sept according to the sales rep at one of the stores and so its a no brainer that the macbooks will be refreshed after that.. you could add another 40 days to that to make the time frame 4.5-5 months to hit indian markets for the new macs ... Remember the dollar price will definitely be different after this time frame.. This will force apple to increase the prices of the macs as it will eat into their normal profits if they don't.. And the student discount will drop back to the normal 6% after that. So expect the macs to have a price increase of at least 10-15000 Rs from the current price after discount on both..

The new mac airs are expected end of july with the old pricing and also 12% discount which makes the base model at 69900 (a real steal). The real problem is for macbook pro users .

The wait will be 4-5 months and an additional 10-15k Rs . The up side ? Some really superb boost in battery and graphics . Some serious horse power in SSD too ..

If you are thinking of buying a mac in India go ahead and get one.. Normally people dont change their macs for 2-3 years . But buying a generation old mac might sound a bad advice but right now its definitely not for Indian customers .. The prices are not aggressive in India on macs and this is great opportunity.

I got myself a 13 rMBP (base model) yesterday for 89900Rs for normal workloads (also its my birthday tomorrow ). I had a mac mini before this . The thing is A mac is a mac .. Once you buy it and start using it , youll forget the specs.

I would shy away from calling any current Macbook a desktop replacement.15', 17' and up HP Elitebook Workstations, Dell Precisions, Alienwares and other similar systems qualify as desktop replacements not the current Macbooks.Reply

For the market that they are looking at (ie the Mac desktop market), then the 15" rMBPs are indeed desktop replacement. These are typically not used for serious engineering where a significantly more powerful professional OpenGL card is necessary. However for developing software needs to be good, and 16 gigs ram is sufficient, they work well as prosumer machines. The elitebooks and precision workstations really only buy you a few niceties - more powerful OpenGL performance and more memory capacity. The other nice features (fingerprint scanners which are disabled on all of our workstations, smart card readers) aren't necessary outside of a secure environment. We also have a slew of rMBPs that are used for application development, and they run everything fine. Though don't get me started on the lack of a docking station. Don't write it off as useless until you've used one, BTW.Reply

You two are both right, rMBPs are great for what they are, portable computers that offers good performance. I have a 15" rMBP, and I like quite a bit, but I also have a custom built PC. For me, I use my MBP for when I'm in my office & when I'm traveling. For everything else, I use my desktop.Reply

Well, when AT talks about MacBooks used as replacement for desktops they mean a replacement for Apple desktops which are very poor desktops in a first place. With that in mind, MBP can be considered a suitable replacement for a bad desktop.Reply

I have the exact config. of the 13" rMBP as posted up here. I mostly used it to run IntelliJ and Netbeans as a software dev most of the time and compilling modules is always fast or fast enough depends on how long the module is. I also use it for picture editing is Photoshop CS6, it handles files from 5DmkII and 7D beautifully. No reason to complainReply

The 15" Macbook Pro hardly qualifies as a "desktop replacement" IMO. You're talking about a system with no replaceable hard drives, a single tiny, expensive SSD. No Blu Ray. At best a mid range (low end by desktop standards) GPU. They're very disappointing pieces of hardware.Reply

I read at the end of this blog; "and opt for the 13-inch MBA (Writer's Aid configuration)."

I've looked everywhere - including on Apple site for a description of 'Writer's Aid configuration' - and found nothing. Could you please explain - or give a link to description of 'Writer's Aid configuration'Reply

By 'Writer's Aid configuration' he just means the specs given here for the MBA - it is the best option for being a 'Writer's Aid' instead of a 'Desktop Replacement'. Just arbitrary descriptions by the author of this articleReply

Why shouldn't they share the love? It's not fanboyism, it's just an article explaining their (or his) view for people looking to buy Apple. You should really get it into your head that not everybody that loves Apple products and thinks they are the best out there is a fanboy. Reply

"share the love"? how about that fact that this site is supposed to be independent and unbiased in its analysis of products. Let the readers make the choice without the insertion of personal bias.

Personally I don't really see the real point (other than an Apple placement) of this "Article" when you're limiting your selection to one companies very limited product line. Apple does have a great business system though. The company keeps it's hardware range/selection to a minimum, so designing an OS around the limited hardware/drivers reduces instability. Windows does not have the luxury to design an OS around a product line of say 10-12 system configurations that internally are not that much different. MS designs their OS for millions of combinations of hardware/drivers. Chromebooks are a more simplistic approach than Apple, but it will meet most users needs...especially with more online apps becoming available. The use of Citrix Receiver allows you to run software withing a window without installing the software.

Think of the thousands of combinations of hardware/software that MS deals with. If they adopted (win8) are more restricted OS development that was legally only allowed to run on their own systems ...well it would be a no brainer as far as OS stability and company profits matching/exceeding Apples. Apple's OS license specifies it must only be used on Apple hardware. That is why you no longer see companies selling hackintoshes.

Buying/using Apple products is like being trapped under a dome IMO. You perceive that you're safe from outside threats, but you're also restricted and not truly free.Reply

"Not truly free" on a machine where the OS kernel is open source, the default OS install includes all of the classic Unix tools, and GCC/Python/etc are a free download away? Plus it boots directly to the desktop by default, and the equivalent of the start menu isn't going anywhere. I liked Win 7 a lot, but vs. Win 8 I have to give the nod to OS X.Reply

What an idiot. Do you eve read this site? Are you such a tool that you come to troll an Apple article that you didn't even read? Pathetic.You are not restricted at all on Apple laptops. Another moronic statement.Reply

I think they should tier their basic offerings a little more, instead of the current emphasis on BTO's. I'd rather them tier it, as it allows for resellers to generate more sales (sometimes I see better deals or killer deals elsewhere, but not the hardware I want!) as opposed to trafficking everyone to apple's own stores. Take Asia for example, BTO is non-existent - I can only buy an apple product to my specs q6 (every) months!Reply

I'm planning an upgrade in a few weeks and would like some advice. Firstly, I'm timing my purchase to take advantage of a sales tax holiday in my state, so I won't be waiting for new machines. I have a mid-2010 MBP (hi-res non-glare) and am torn between the 2.6-GHz mid-2012 MBP (hi-res) and the early-2013 rMBP (2.4 or 2.6 GHz). My priorities for this upgrade are: 16 GB of memory, USB3, and 4-cores.

One option is to get the 2.6 GHz MBP, place my current 512 MB Crucial M4 in it, and upgrade the memory to 16 GB. This would be much cheaper than a rMBP as I already have the SSD, and third-party memory is cheaper than Apple's.

Question 1. It seems like the bump from the 2.4 GHz to the 2.6 GHz processor is worth it in the non-retina MBP as it comes with a doubling of the GPU memory, and costs only $120 (edu pricing). Is the 2.6 GHz processor worth the $100 (edu) in the rMBP?

Question 2. I'm not sold on the retina screen. I think I would use it in 1920x1200 mode most of the time, but I'm not such a fan of the glare/glass covering (though I understand the glare is decreased in the retina panels due to there being fewer layers of glass or something), and am wary of potential performance drawbacks. Have any rMBP users had any problems with the glare and/or decreased graphics performance?Reply

perfect conclusion,I have dual-system configuration so using iMac and macbook air(shouldnt have upgraded to i7),otherwise if i will maintain single-system configuration than 13 inch rMBP if good enough with thunderbolt dispay.Reply

I want to buy a laptop and it crossed my mind to look up MacBooks. I'm European so I went to the Apple online store for my region. The new 13" MacBook Pro 13, 2.4GHz with Retina display costs 1,329.00€. In the US Apple Store it costs $1,299.00.Coverted to dollars 1,329€ = $1,845That's purely insane and it should be illegal in EU ( and it will be soon enough)Now please tell me, with your American objectivity, why should I buy a MacBook?Reply